Embodiments of this disclosure relate to the field of database management systems and, more particularly, to adaptive access control in relational database management systems (RDBMSs).
Due to both legal and business reasons, business enterprises are increasingly becoming sensitive to data security. Many RDBMSs implement discretionary access controls (DACs) for granting table object access privileges to a user. These privileges may be managed by role-based access controls (RBACs), where a user wishing to access data in a table object must be a member of a role permitted to access the data in the table object. Another technique for controlling access to data in a table on a column-level or a row-level includes use of label-based access controls (LBACs), such that, unless a label of a user is compatible with a label associated with a row or column of a table, then the data for that row or column is not returned to the user. Due to the restrictive nature of label components, business enterprises have turned to more flexible mechanisms, for example, fine-grained access controls (FGACs), including views, triggers, virtual private databases, and row and column access controls.